Page 83 of Hide and Seek

I freeze for what feels like the tenth time in as many minutes, my eyes locked on his as my heart starts pounding my chest, and a weird ringing fills my ears.

Jace and Jax Hawthorne are just as infamous as Killian, and they’re two of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen in real life. I’ve never once spoken to either of them, never even been in the same room as them, but I’ve seen them around campus, and those few glances from afar didn’t do them justice.

The twins have thick, dark hair that they wear long on top and short on the sides and incredible silver-gray eyes. If that wasn’t enough, they also have the physique of a cover model, silky smooth skin, and the most perfect bone structure I’ve ever seen on anyone, ever.

I stare at him with all the chill of a kid going through puberty again, my face flaming with a blush that most likely makes me look like a shocked tomato.

The corners of his lips tick up in a smirky smile that makes my insides flip-flop and definitely doesn’t help my splotchy tomato aesthetic as my face burns even hotter.

“Are you okay?” the guy in front of me asks as he turns around, and I see his face for the first time since this started.

It’s Felix, the kid I helped Jacob try to kill.

I gape at him like a moron, my mouth opening and closing a few times as I attempt to speak but have no idea what I’m trying to say.

Killian wraps his arm around Felix’s shoulder and tucks him up against his side. Felix melts against him and slings his arm around Killian’s waist possessively.

I blink a few times, my brain finally coming back online as I stare at them for a few beats.

Killian and Felix are stepbrothers, and it’s no secret around campus that they don’t like each other. Did that change, and now they’re together?

“Are you okay?” Felix asks again, his expression concerned.

“Yeah,” I croak. “Sorry. Thank you. I mean, fine?”

I snap my mouth closed so I stop stammering like an idiot.

“You sure?” the twin who now has a pocket full of bullets asks. “You look like you’re gonna keel over on us.”

“Come on,” Felix waves for me to follow him as he pulls Killian away from the gate.

I stumble after them and try to get my brain and mouth connected again.

“You good?” the other twin asks.

I have no idea who’s Jace and who’s Jax, and I can’t stop myself from looking between them a few times.

They’re as identical as two people can be, but somehow also look different. One of them is wearing their hair pushed to the side, and the other has his back from his face. They’re both dressed in jeans and black hoodies, and even the way they stand and carry themselves is identical. But the biggest, and the only, difference I can see between them is their eyes.

Not the shape or color, but the actual look in them.

The one who disarmed the guard has the most intense stare I’ve ever seen, but it isn’t hostile or intimidating. It’s observant and calculating, and there’s an intelligence in it that’s undeniable.

The other twin’s eyes are no less intense, but there’s a wild, chaotic energy to them that’s just as intelligent and calculating as his brother.

It’s also weird how a flutter of butterflies explodes in my stomach every time my gaze flicks to the twin who disarmed the guard, but the only thing I feel is curiosity and a bit of awe at how damn beautiful he is when I look at the other twin.

How is that possible when they’re the most identical people I’ve ever seen? How can one of them make me feel like an awkward nerd who’s never talked to a hot guy before, and the other just makes me feel like a two among tens?

“Yeah,” I scrape out belatedly. “Fine. Thanks.”

“Are you sure?” Felix asks, giving me a sympathetic look. “That was insane. I’ve never seen one of them pull a gun on a student before.”

“Bro’s obviously a newb,” the twin who doesn’t make my stomach wobble says. “Otherwise he’d know that little stunt is gonna land him on the unemployment line.” He holds up his phone. “I got some nice shots of him waving his penis extender around. He’s about to enter the find out stage of fucking around.”

“What the hell did you do to make him freak out like that?” Killian asks me bluntly.

“Nothing?” I shrug the best I can with the pile of books I still have tucked under my arm. “I stopped to answer a text and didn’t realize I was in front of the gate.” I show him my phone, as if that somehow proves what I’m saying. “Then the next thing I know, he’s yelling at me to get my ID, but then he’s yelling and telling me not to move.”